Elon Musk Has Sold $12.7 Billion in Tesla Stock for 2021—More to Come?
To date, Elon Musk has sold a total of $12.7 billion in Tesla stock. He'll need to sell another 5 billion shares to meet his goal of selling 10 percent of his Tesla stock.
Dec. 14 2021, Published 3:42 p.m. ET
On Nov. 6, Elon Musk held a poll on Twitter asking users whether he should sell 10 percent of his Tesla (TSLA) stock after being criticized for not paying taxes. He followed up the tweet with another that read, “Note, I do not take a cash salary or bonus from anywhere. I only have stock, thus the only way for me to pay taxes personally is to sell stock.”
After more than 3 million votes were cast and the results revealed that 57.9 percent of voters wanted Musk to sell, the billionaire business magnate sold off $931 million in Tesla stock. Prior to selling, Musk reportedly owned 170.49 million shares in addition to “valuable options.” On Dec. 14, Musk sold off another round of his Tesla stock. Here’s how much the SpaceX founder has sold in stock so far in 2021.
Elon Musk had only sold Tesla stock twice up until he pledged to sell 10 percent of his Tesla holdings in 2021.
According to Forbes, Musk only sold Tesla stock twice. The first round of offloading shares happened in July 2010 when Musk reportedly sold just over “1.4 million shares for a pre-tax total of $24 million.” Then, in 2016, the Tesla founder sold 2.7 million shares priced at $213.22 each, which allowed him to collect a little over $593 million “to cover taxes for options he had exercised.”
After Musk pledged on Twitter in November 2021 that he would sell off 10 percent of his Tesla holdings, the world’s richest man sold about $9.85 billion in stock while still possessing ownership over more than 169 million shares, reports CNBC.
Elon Musks sells off another round of Tesla stock just before the 2021 Christmas holiday.
Currently, Elon Musk is getting closer to meeting his goal of offloading 10 percent of his Tesla shares. On Dec. 13., Musk sold another 934,091 shares “for about $906.5 million to cover taxes on the exercise of 2.1 million more options,” reports Bloomberg. So far in 2021, Musk has sold a total of 11.9 million Tesla shares that were “spread over 680 sales,” according to CNBC.
The total amount Musk has collected from selling off some of his Tesla shares in 2021 is $12.7 billion. A portion of the stock sales will be used to “pay taxes on his compensation package,” while the rest is considered “straight cash-outs.”
If Musk wants to live up to his word by selling off the full 10 percent of stock he pledged, CNBC says that he will need to sell about 5 million more shares. As of Dec. 14, Tesla stock was trading at $939.65. If Musk sold at this price, he would collect an additional $4.6 billion.
Will Elon Musk sell more Tesla stock before the end of 2021?
There's a possibility that Musk could offload additional shares of Tesla stock before the end of 2021. He hasn't sold off the 10 percent that he pledged on Twitter. As a result, he might sell more shares before the end of the year.
As of Nov. 11, Musk also had 20 million stock options that are scheduled to expire in August 2022, which likely means that the Tesla founder will be exercising his stock options sometime soon, possibly before we enter 2022.
How has Elon Musk’s decision to sell a portion of his Tesla holdings impacted the stock’s performance?
On Nov. 8, a day after Musk took to Twitter to share the results of his poll, Tesla stock closed the day trading at $1,162.94. The electric vehicle manufacturer’s stock has gradually declined since then, with shares trading at around $940 as of Dec. 14.
Despite the dip in the stock price, Tesla has proven that it can sustain itself through rough times. The EV maker was on the brink of filing for bankruptcy at one point between mid-2017 and mid-2019, reports Business Insider. Musk was able to provide the company with a solid investment that allowed it to stay afloat.